In the Land of Bland: Chicken Fajitas

Tonight's dinner will be none other than my fave: Chicken Fajitas!

In our house bland is usually the name of the game and my fajitas fit nice into that category though there is no shortage of peppers in my pretty little fajitas!

What you need:
Medium sized burrito wraps
Brown rice (I use the five or 10 minute stuff)**see below for side note
4 large(ish) peepers in various colors
Garlic
1 onion
Sour cream
Shredded colby jack cheese
Salsa
1 pkg. Chicken
Garlic

**If you are feeling as lazy as I sometimes feel you can even use the uncle Ben's microwave rice in a pouch

Directions:
(brace yourself, its gonna be a tuffy,lol)

1. Clean chick and cut it up into small bite sized pieces. You can also cut it into thin strips. I cut it up depending on how impatient I am feeling. If I just want to eat already I cut it up small so it cooks quicker.

2. Spray a pan with Pam and put chicken in a cook.

3. While chicken is cooking cut peppers into thin strips and cut up onion. Please both veggies into same pan as chicken and let it all cook. Add garlic and pepper and whatever else floats your boat.

4. Prepare your rice.

5. When chicken is done and veggies are cooked to you liking remove from stove and....THAT'S IT!

6. I am no fancy pants so I just throw the warmed wraps, rice, bag of cheese, the salsa and sour cream on the table.

My layering technique:
~Layer from bottom to top~
Warm wrap
Sour cream
Rice
Chicken and veggie mixture
Salsa
Cheese

By all means do it as you wish, BUT please do share!

What do you like on your fajitas??

Cheers,
eLp

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Bufflo Chicken Sandwiches and Spinach Artichoke Dip

I love spicy anything, husband...not so much, so any chance I get to have spicy things that I can control the spicy factor on, I'm game!

Tonight we will be having Buffalo chicken sandwiches. Though I don't like to admit it (who am I Kidding..I could care less) I like short cuts. While grocery shopping, I picked up a bag of the frozen breaded chick tenderloins so I could bypass doing it my self.

The sauce is super easy. You need 2 things:

Hot Sauce
Butter
(add a smidgen of vinegar if you would like)

Cook the chicken pieces in oven according to direction on bag.

While cooking:

Place butter and hot sauce in sauce pan and let melt Slowly...very slowly!

You can change the intensity to your liking by adding more butter or less hot sauce.

Once chicken is done put in a dish and cove with sauce.

Place chicken in the oven and broil for a minute or two for a crispy sandwich.

Serve blue cheese dressing on the side.
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With the sandwiches tonight I will be serving spinach dip.


Let me tell you...I found this spinach dip recipe at none other than allrecipes.com and this is the best one I have ever tasted...ever!

I make this often when we have company.

Ingredients:

1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained
1/3 cup grated Romano cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
   
3. In a blender or food processor, place artichoke hearts, Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese and garlic . Pulse until chopped, but not ground. Set aside.
   
4. In a medium bowl, mix together spinach, heavy cream, sour cream and mozzarella cheese. Stir in artichoke mixture. Spoon into prepared baking dish.
   
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

**If you are not into artichoke in your dip just leave it out and skip the blender/foor processor step...just add the cheeses and garlic to the stuff in the next step. Ive done this a few times to cut down on time since I was in a rush. Still tasted absolutly delish!

artichoke dip from allrecipes.com

sauce recipe from allrecipes.com

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Meat (loaf) Subs!

It was another hit in this household last night with the meatloaf subs. Its a take on a classic meatball sub just meatloaf-esq so when you bite into it you get the perfect ratio of meat, bread, cheese and sauce!

Hubs L.O.V.E.D it despite the fact that he hates (though he has never tried) meatloaf. I just didn't mention it to him until he was done eating. Sucka!

Ingridents:

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup marinara sauce
3 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise


Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, salt and pepper, garlic powder, and half of the mozzarella cheese. Form the mixture into a log, and place it into an 8x8 inch baking dish.

3. Bake for 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the center is no longer pink.

4. Let stand for 5 minutes, then slice into 1/2 inch slices. Place a few slices onto each hoagie roll, cover with marinara sauce, and sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese over.

5. Wrap each sandwich with aluminum foil, and return to the oven for 15 minutes, until bread is lightly toasted and cheese is melted. Let stand 15 minutes before eating. Each sandwich serves 2.

Recipe from All Recipes

My Dish on the Dish~

Bake the bread a little before you put ingredients in it and toast it again. This way it is slightly toasted and will not be soggy from the sauce.

After taking them out of the oven and unwrapping them I realized that it may be nicer to put a slice of mozzarella cheese on top as opposed to shredded. Just my opinion!

Cheers, eLp

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A Chicken Casserole, YU-UM

**Added to Kelly's Korner- Show Us Your lIfe

Just finished dinner (by myself since the husband is working late) and I am so excited. I just tried a delish new dish that I found and I couldn't be happier!


I had mentioned this recipe last week to hubs and he seemed than enthusiastic than a bundle of hay. After making it...I think he will be pleasantly surprised. He was concerned that it would be mushy-ish. No at all!


So I give you....


A Chicken Casserole (I know, so original)

Ingridents:
1 (6 ounce) package wild rice (such as Uncle Ben's ®)
3 cups water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cut into chunks
1 (14.5 ounce) can French-cut green beans, drained
1 (10.75 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup mayonnaise

Directions:
1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Bring the wild rice and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender but not mushy, 20 to 25 minutes. Drain off any excess liquid, fluff the rice with a fork, and cook uncovered 5 minutes more.

3. While the rice cooks, heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until completely browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Combine the rice, chicken, green beans, mushroom soup, and mayonnaise in a large baking dish.

4.Bake in the preheated oven until the chicken is no longer pink in the center, about 45 minutes.

Recipe found on All Recipes

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My dish on the dish:

Really really good. Pain in the ass to make but really good.

I decided that I wanted to use frozen green beans instead of canned. They pack much more of a nutritional value. So I had to make the chicken, make the green beans and make the rice...then mix it together and bake it. That's ALOT of pots and pans (and time) which means alot of cleanup.

The recipe calls for mayo in it. In my house, we don't do mayo, so I omitted it. Still delish!

I may, since I don't want to use canned green beans (which would cut prep time down) may make a chicken dish one night and make enough chicken for left overs so I can skip making one thing for that meal.

If you try it, please come back and tell me what you thought!

Cheers,

eLp

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The most bland but OH SO GOOD chili

I love chili but only if its the chili that my mom makes (now I make it too). Hubs is not very onto spicy so my chili recipe was perfect for him.

It consists of very little (which I love) and takes very little effort (which I love even more)!

I usually make this dish on a Sunday since it needs to simmer for as long as you are willing to let simmer. The longer the better.

Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

One package of ground turkey. I use the 43% fat kind
4 Cans of plain tomato sauce
2(ish) Cans of Campbell's tomato soup
1 tablespoon Chili powder (you will need to add more as it simmers)
A couple sprinkles of Garlic powder
Onion powder ( a few sprinkles should do the trick)

Directions:

1. Brown the ground turkey until cooked

2. Combine all cans of tomato sauce, tomato soup and ground turkey in a large pot

3. Add about 1 tablespoon of chili powder

4. Add the garlic powder and a few sprinkles of onion powder

5. Let simmer on low for as long as you can. The longer it simmers the better.

6. After it simmers for a little, taste and add chili powder to taste. I usually end up adding quite a bit.

I usually serve it with white or brown (when I'm being a good girl) rice in the bottom of the bowl. Add chili on top of rice and sprinkle shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Mix together...or not.

If you prefer you can skip the rice and scoop the chili with tostito chips.

Enjoy!

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For the Love Of Chicken

If you read the about me section (I hope you did because it pretty much spells out everything me) you would know that me and chicken are like this (picture me crossing my fingers)!


At the very least the husband and I have some sort of chicken dish two times per week.


Since I have such a love of chicken I thought it fitting for the first post to be a chicken recipe.


Bruchetta Chicken:


Ingredients:
1 Package of boneless, skinless chicken breast
*1- 1 1/2 containers of diced tomato
Diced onion
Wishbone Red Wine Balsamic Spray
Basil
Minced Garlic
Spray butter


Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350


1. Clean up chicken by cutting all visible fat off ( I am a freak about this)


2. Spray Pam into a baking dish and place chicken in pan


3. Spread minced garlic on chicken (use as much or as little as you would like, we are garlic whores in our house so more is usually better)


4. Top chicken with diced tomato's ( we are also tomato obsessed so I pile it on too) and onion


5. Sprinkle basil over tomato and onion


6. Give a few squirts of spray butter to top it off


7. Bake in oven until chicken is done (I never pay attention to time so when the chicken is done the dish is ready)


I usually serve this dish with Near East Rice Pilaf. Follow the directions on the box.




*Diced tomato- At the main food store here we have a section in produce that is already diced veggies (onion, tomato... etc). I know Walmart near us has that too so maybe try there if your local food store does not have it. Or you could you know, dice tomato yourself..that's just not my style!

Cheers, eLp

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